In the field of data management, particularly in larger corporations, it is not uncommon for number of legacy data bases and document repositories to be maintained, each of which operates using different architectures. Furthermore, in the case of engineering drawings, maps or other similar drawings used by utility companies, the basic image files are often non-intelligent raster format drawings or are otherwise not in a format suitable for easy modification.
However, there is need to integrate disparate files such as (maps, drawings, image files, text files, sensor information, GPS data, etc. . . . ) into a single file so that once a first file is retrieved, other files corresponding to objects on that first file can also be easily retrieved. For example, in the case of an engineering drawing, there can be hundreds if not thousands of objects on a single image, each of which has corresponding data on file in the system, such as additional sub-images, text files etc. . . . . However, in many cases, the first image file can not be modified to add links to these related data files.
Traditional data integration solutions require that the current software applications be replaced with already integrated alternatives as in the case of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions, or very costly, time consuming integration code must be written to get separate application software and associated data to work together.
Additionally, standard Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) typically require a vector rather than a raster format for drawings and maps to be used. Also, prior art systems require the user to work in the native file format of the image document that is being overlain.